New York woman sentenced to prison in drug trafficking case

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Mitefea Kelly (left) and Terrence Bell, the man police said supplied the drugs she carried to Martha's Vineyard, were arraigned August 10 in Edgartown District Court. — File photo by Michelle Williams

Dukes County Superior Court Associate Justice Robert Rufo sentenced Mitefea Kelly on Tuesday to a term of four to six years in state prison, on a charge of trafficking in cocaine. The sentence was part of a plea agreement.

Police described Ms. Kelly, 18 at the time of her arrest, as a drug courier from the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, New York. Members of the Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task Force arrested her on August 9, 2012, as she stepped off a Steamship Authority ferry in Oak Bluffs. According to a police report, she was carrying 270 grams of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $30,000. Police said it was the largest cocaine seizure in the history of the Island.

Also that day, after a brief pursuit in Woods Hole, police arrested Terrence Bell, 34, of Queens, New York. Police described him as the ringleader of a long-running drug connection between Martha’s Vineyard and the New York City borough. He was arrested on an outstanding warrant for an incident in Vineyard Haven on January 21, 2012. In that case, police say Mr. Bell broke into a home on North William Street and threatened a drug user who owed him money from a drug sale. That case is still pending.